Interview with NTG CEO Sam Watson following Doyle Sails and Quantum Sails joining the Group

by Mark Jardine 2 Aug 08:36 PDT

It's been a busy time for North Technology Group (NTG) with the addition of Doyle Sails and Quantum Sails just announced, adding the best-in-class sailmakers to their existing portfolio which includes North Sails, and Southern Spars.

We spoke to NTG CEO Sam Watson to find out what it means for the industry, for sailors, their aims for the future and how the Group can grow participation in sailing.

Mark Jardine: How did these two acquisitions come about? You've got three rival sailmakers, and quite often there is a strong rivalry between the brands, so how did they become a part of NTG?

Sam Watson: It's our strategy to keep adding to the NTG portfolio. The group has been active on this front for years and our business has already grown prior to this with a combination of successful brands.

Some of the discussions with both the Doyle and Quantum teams have been rolling for multiple years with lots of interaction between people in their businesses and ours, where we've talked about potentially doing this in the past, and over the last year those discussions picked up steam.

It's those background chats that have all accumulated, and everybody collectively decided that this is a good idea: it's going to be good for the business, good for the sport and good for each of the brand's customers.

Mark: Some of the biggest questions people will inevitably have are: could this create a dominant force in the market, will this affect prices, and what is going to happen?

Sam: It's a global economy, and there continues to be a long list of sailmakers that are serving the market. Our intention and long-term commitment is to run the brands separately, and offer customers choice. There are real differences between the brands, why customers are choosing them, and their value propositions. We want to preserve all of that. NTG will continue to have separate brands, continue to have separate sales teams, and customers will be able to continue to buy from the people they trusted for years.

The product portfolios will not be blended. Sailors will continue to have a choice, which we feel is important.

We have already proven this is possible and breeds success with how we run the Southern Spars, Future Fibres and Hall Spars businesses.

Mark: Will this experience with those brands almost act as a template with running three sailmaking brands?

Sam: There are some lessons from it, but it's not quite the same. The circumstances of how those three brands joined are different. Hall Spars, in particular, we picked up out of a bankruptcy process. The whole US business had already completely shut down and this minimized some of the crossover between the Hall Spars and Southern Spars brands, serving slightly different customer bases. This investment is different, because these are healthy businesses.

What we do know from our prior experience is the value of maintaining independent brands with all the competition that exists between them. We want to make sure that we've got salespeople, sailmakers and designers within each brand waking up every day, thinking about serving their customers, and the best way to deliver that for their business.

Mark: Across the three sailmaking brands you've got different technologies and IP. Will that remain unique to those brands, or will you start to use the best from each across the three sailmakers?

Sam: The product offerings each have their advantages and we want that to continue. For example, we're not going to start selling 3Di under either the Doyle or Quantum brand.

There is absolutely an opportunity though, as a wider group, to invest in technology. For example, from the software side we can see with what's happening in the America's Cup with the advent of machine learning and AI rapidly picking up. As a group we're going to have more capability to invest in those tools. But our intention is that they will be deployed independently, and the brands will make of them what they will.

On the material side, NTG will keep pushing the envelope in terms of material development, new materials and what's possible with them. This is true both for sailmaking and our Actionsports brands.

From a product perspective, we expect the brands to continue to operate completely separately and continue to innovate in their own right.

Mark: So, will economies of scale mean that the R&D that you put in at NTG can step up for customer benefit?

Sam: That's exactly it. The scale gives us obvious advantages when it comes to manufacturing, supply chain and logistics that will be beneficial for our group. The upside is that it's really going to help us invest in technology, in the design tools and fundamentally in the sport itself.

The desire from our group, our primary goal, is to increase the number of people that are passionate about sailing and participating in the sport. If we can bring new sailors into the sport, new owners into the sport, then that is the best outcome. We want to propel yachting forward and we're really committed to giving back to the sport.

Mark: Being hugely passionate about increasing participation and making sailing more accessible, I'm very happy to hear that message.

When it comes to service lofts, particularly at events, there's already quite a bit of crossover between sailmakers, but will this result in more access to service lofts for all three brands and more sailors?

Sam: We've had some discussion about things that we can do to improve the owner experience in the sport. One of the examples is pop-up lofts we have on-site at regattas. It's really valued by the sailors participating, and it's an area of collaboration that would be well supported by the industry and customers. There is already a bit of resource sharing, and I expect we're going to be able to do more of that.

We're looking for more opportunities like that, while continuing to preserve the differences and the options for the market.

We've also talked a lot about the owner experience at regattas, and what we could do to support a more enjoyable experience. If we can support regattas, to get more resource out on the water, and have critical decisions made real time, that's another area that we think we could benefit sailing.

Mark: This has clearly been a very busy time for NTG, with this major announcement. Will you be pausing for breath, or you still on the expansion trail?

Sam: We haven't got anything immediately in the hopper. It's been busy, but we've been doing this successfully for quite a period of time, and we definitely have a lot to digest here. We want to to focus on this and do a good job of it.

Mark: Thank you for your time today, and all the best with developing your new brands at NTG. We're looking forward to seeing how it all progresses, and fully support your goal of increasing participation in sailing and making it more enjoyable.

Sam: Thank you. We're all so passionate about the sport and are confident that we can do something good for sailing as a result of this.

Find out more at www.northtechnologygroup.com